Lucifer Devil Jr.'s Christmas Surprise... And Other Short Stories

Kissing You

Okay, so falling in love with Prince Charming might not have been the smartest idea Abby had ever had. But then again, he was the heir to the throne. So a girl was allowed to fantasize about a royal wedding, right? Even if she was just an ugly witch and the greatest misfit in the entire kingdom? 

Or as her father, the king's most trusted wizard, had once put it, "You are nothing and will never amount to anything! I don't understand why we still put up with you." To which she would have loved to reply, "Because I'm an only child, Dad!" 

But on the bright side, she had made it through her teenage years without having a breakdown. She was just different from anyone else, as her best friend once said. The one thing she had ever excelled at was being at war with the world: When Prince Charming announced his engagement to a beautiful princess, she was, for instance, the only person in the kingdom who hated the bride-to-be with a passion.

Actually, her best friend was Prince Charming, a young man who had never offended anyone with his behavior. Even though they were an odd pair, it wasn't as if they had had much of a choice as kids as they had both grown up in the palace. At some point, Abby had taken this friendship for granted. How wrong she had been about that! Princess Calliope from the Kingdom at the Far End of the Sea was not only the most beautiful being Abby knew, but also someone who had interfered in her friendship with the prince.

On the day that would have been his wedding day, the prince overslept. Actually, he never woke up. Abby's father concluded that someone had put a curse on him. At first, her father even suspected her because he knew how much Abby hated the idea of the prince marrying Princess Calliope. 

"There must be something we can do!" the princess exclaimed.

"The usual thing that happens in fairy tales is that you can reawaken people with a kiss. If somebody's true love kisses the person that has been placed under a powerful sleeping spell, he or she will wake up," Abby said. It wasn't so much an idea as a nasty snide remark at the princess, but her father thought that it could work. 

"Go ahead and try to wake him up!" he said, but left it unclear which one of the young women he meant. 

Princess Calliope tried it first, but nothing happened when she kissed him. 

"C'mon, you can't be serious!" Abby said to her sleeping friend. What she had just witnessed couldn't be true: The prince was supposed to be in love with Calliope. He had told her he was in love many times. 

"Perhaps you want to kiss him next," her father suggested.

"Not really!" 

When Abby kissed him anyway and Prince Charming stirred, a shocked Abby exclaimed, "I haven't done a thing!"